Bernard Kron

Gil Ayala showing us all how its done ... and nothing's sexier than a slammed kustom in white primer ... unless it's Ms. Page! And thanx for the look-back at the Mercs - you sure had the creative "glow" on there... Some additional white primer action:

Thanx! This is a small update which actually represents a fair amount of work. The body is narrow enough that using bucket seats proved impractical. In order to build out a bench seat I needed to finalize the floor of the car, The floor, in turn, needed to take into account the transmission and drive train to the degree to which it intruded into the cab. In a car this small everything is tightly interrelated. The floor was fabricated from styrene sheet, rod, and strip with a low transmission tunnel which doubles as a support for the bench seat. The “upholstery” for the seat bottom was made from the same half round rod and siding patterned styrene sheet as the sides and back. Below is a composite picture showing the interior and floor from various angles. It’s all in raw plastic because I’m trying to avoid gluing and painting until everything is fabricated and fully test fitted. This might sound obvious but in the past I have tended to glue and paint as I went along, leading to more problems than was necessary if I had been disciplined enough to complete all my sub-assemblies before doing finish work and assembly. Next up will be the dashboard and windshield, which, once again, are interrelated. Once that’s done the interior will be complete and I can move on to finalizing the suspension bits and beginning paint and assembly. Thanx for lookin’, B.

I have been waiting for these sheets ever since they were first announced. I may never build a completed midget but the style of the numbers and of other details is nearly impossible to get otherwise and will add a new dimension to some of my projects! Thanx for taking the time and care to do these.

I’ve made a small modification to the engine mounts so that the motor now sits with the valve covers parallel with the frame rails and the top of the oil pan just about even with the top of the frame. This update is Part One of the interior fabrication. One of the challenges one faces when working from a resin body for which there is no equivalent kit is that a large part of the build must be made from scratch. I find the process is often part logic and tactics and part accident and discovery. This is an excellent example of what I mean. To start with I made an interior structure by tracing a pattern directly from the inside surfaces of the body to paper. Then I copied the pattern to a sheet of .010” styrene and cut it out. This would form the base for the actual surfaces you would see. Here is the pattern displayed flat and then installed in the body. It’s held in place using rubber cement. Then I fabricated the “upholstered” surfaces using Evergreen Novelty sheet styrene in a siding pattern for the main surfaces and styrene half-round rod to make the bolster that will run around the outer edge of the body. The bolster was built up from .1875” stock and .080” stock glued together to form a “P” shape. The pieces were based on the original pattern I made and trial fit and trimmed using rubber cement before being permanently glued to the base using liquid cement. Here are the pieces that resulted. As you can see the base has broken apart from handling. The .010” styrene sheet becomes quite brittle and fractures and tears easily. However, I didn’t want to use anything thicker to minimize fitment issues. (The photo is out of sequence as will be explained below.) Once the upholstered surfaces were finalized and glued in place to the base I clamped them in place and left them for a time in order for the plastic to gain some memory and conform to the compound curves of the interior. That explains the curved ends in the photo above. I discovered that once the interior tore apart installation of the interior pieces became much easier with no sacrifice of accuracy of fit. And finally, here is the completed interior as it stands up to this point. You’ll note the small half-round .080” strips sticking out on the ends at the back. These will be bent home and glue in place to form a continuous strip and the seams and gaps filled and sanded to final shapes. Tactically this means the interior will have to be glued into the body before painting and the body masked and the interior painted but I can’t think of a way to avoid this. It should be obvious that my build style is pretty improvisational, with some advanced planning but a lot of “on the fly engineering”. I haven’t decided whether to make a bench seat or use buckets. The inspiration cars both have bench seats. I’ll probably try both before deciding. A floor needs to be fabricated and a dashboard made. About the only thing I’ve decided on in advance is to use a ’60 Chevy Impala steering wheel from Modelhaus which will influence my design decisions. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Thanx everyone. Yes, from Jimmy Flintstone.

Thanx again guys! I’ve received several comments regarding the stance of this car and decided to revisit it one more time to dial things in to address what I thought were some perceptive and constructive observations. The result was that I did an extensive re-do of several areas. To begin with, I noticed that the rear axle interfered with the lower edge of the body, causing the body shell to be jacked up and spoiling the original channel I had done. Removing some additional bodywork to clear the rear axle corrected this problem. Next up was that I noticed that the front end was extremely low, creating a more extreme rake than I wanted and causing the front end to look more stretched out than was desirable. By lowering the suicide perch I raised the front end about 1/16” or about 1.5 scale inches. Lastly, the motor sat too high relative to the bodywork, a problem made even worse once I corrected the rear axle interference. I made several changes to address this, the goal being to place the upper edge of the oil pan at the same level as the tops of the frame rails.. First of all I changed the transmission from the very large automatic transmission that comes with the Parts Pack Cadillac to a compact little La Salle box which lowered the back end of the motor without having to rebuild the center crossmember. Next I fabricated new engine mounts that were slightly narrower and extended horizontally from the frame rails to support the engine at the center of the block casting rather than at the lower edge of the crankcase. With the engine lowered relative to the cowl top I found it necessary to raise the air cleaner slightly so I fabricated a small spacer placed between the air cleaner and the carburetor. With all these changes it was necessary to finalize the motor location in order to dial in the grill shell placement, a design element which is critical to determining if the front end would appear too stretched out. This required fabricating the firewall, which I made from an AMT ’29 Ford roadster unit. In addition I installed the motor’s chromed fan. And finally, because it effects where the eye is drawn in evaluating the overall stance, I mocked up a windshield frame resembling the unit on the Anderegg car. One more change still needs to be made. With the body properly located now, the grill shell will need to be cut down some more to align properly with the cowl. All this work really has made a big difference. The car sits more solidly on its wheels and looks more put together than it did. So , thanks to those who were interested enough to comment. Thanx for lookin’ B.

A true Master of the Car Modeling arts, to my way of thinking, would have to be able to build an exceptional model entirely from scratch exhibiting all the techniques and abilities required at a level unsurpassed by any of his peers. As a result, the only way to determine a Master is if the master produces a Masterpiece, a model which provides incontrovertible evidence of the Master's unrivaled skills. I agree with Andy that Manuel Olive Sans ( see http://www.olivesans.com/ ) was such a Master, capable of truly transcendent creations. His contemporary, Michele Conti (see http://www.conticoll...om/testpage.htm for some examples) also comes to mind. I can't see why Gerald Wingrove shouldn't qualify. It gets more complicated once we step away from replica modeling and into the world of plastic modeling and kit modifying. Juha Airto certainly bridges the gap and, to my way of thinking, would qualify as a Master. But, as great and inspiring as many of my heroes in the world of plastic modeling may be, I feel I would have to reserve the term Master for an exceptional few. The term Master Modeler as it is used to hawk wares on e-Bay is an absurdity, right alongside that other hoary commonplace found there, "Pro Built".

Thanx guys! I do these mockups and stance checks at the beginning to make sure things look right and will go together properly. Looking at the car in photos and also "in the plastic", there was something that bothered me. It looked a little stretched out. I decided it was because the rear wheels were a little too far out at the corners, so I moved the rear axle in about 1/8 inch or roughly 3 1/8 scale inches. This tucks the top of the rear tire below the trunk line creating a symmetry between them, and makes the car slightly more close coupled without spoiling the Lo-Boy effect. Belows is a comparison between the two with new stance at the bottom. The camera angle isn't a perfect match but I think it shows the difference. Yeah, without any pictures the site is just a list of descriptions, with a ton of cool stuff tucked away in various categories. The Caddy air cleaner can be found on Page 1 under "Customizing Parts". It's available either plain or chrome plated.

I'm building this for a hot rod build-off on another board. They do a lot of show rods so a Flintstone 27 T body with Revell Parts Pack Caddy mill and mostly Revell 29 RPU suspension, a Lo-boy stance, Testors Inca Gold paint, pearl white frame and interior, and lotsa chrome seemed appropriate given my building style. The key influences for the image in my head are the Gary Heliker 26 T (which gained infamy in the movie Hot Rods To Hell), and the Ray Anderegg 25 T in the later “Golden Chariot” version recently cloned by Von Franco and featured as a TRJ cover car. The Gary Heliker T: The later Hot Rods To Hell Version: The Von Franco Golden Chariot clone as featured in The Rodder’s Journal: I've been wanting to do this project for a long time but have continually put it off because of the large amount of scratch building involved. But I think I may be up to it, now. I scratched together the chassis after having built the mill to get the dimensions I needed. The air cleaner is from Modelhaus. And here's a mockup for stance check, held together by rubber cement... The rear wheels are the ones I'll be using (from Modelhaus). The fronts will be chrome ones like the ones you see. The tires will be either these or slightly wider ones. Alternate tires and the chrome front wheels are on order from Modelhaus so that will probably be the long pole in the tent... Chopped Revell Deuce grill shell. I'm pretty sure I'll be running lakes pipes under the body to add some interest to the lower edge of the car. I'll probably have to make them. The really big challenge is now, and has always been, scratching together an interior. Probably no way to avoid it any longer... Thanx for lookin', B.

This kit's on my short list as a must-buy - not to build it, but as as a fabulous parts kit. Typical of Revell's over-ambitious attempts at fine detailing in the early 60's - fragile, fiddly and frustrating!!! But, like the Tony Nancy 22 Jr. double dragster kit and the various Roth show cars, the superbly represented period engine, speed parts, tires & wheels, and chassis bits add up to a kit-basher's dream. It easily passes my parts-kit price test several times over: costing no more than 6 equivalent aftermarket parts based on what's included in the box that I know for sure I'll use! I'm also glad to see the return of branded Firestone and M&H tires on current Revell releases. BTW, Jimmy Flintstone has offered a re-pop of the body as a chopped "rat-rod" '32 Ford sedan for many years. As mentioned earlier, the body builds up nicely into a great hot rod street machine. I did one a couple of years back based on the Flintstone version and really enjoyed what it offered. So, besides all the very cool detail parts, I know I'll be gluing the doors shut and using the body! Here's some pics (click on picture for larger image):

Oh my, my breath... she is taken away!!! Source and method on the killer louvers???

Thanx again everyone! The Deuce is a universal language that anyone with an automotive sensibility can understand. I'm gratified my efforts could make a connection with you all. Also a special howdy to ronr (Ron Royston of Early Years Resin) and Kris Morgan (M.A.D. Model Parts - the aforementioned Morgan Auto Detail). I'm glad to say I'm thoroughly addicted to your nice parts and great service! Nice to hear from you.

Thanks a lot, guys! The props are much appreciated! I just noticed I left out a picture of the SBC. Here it is:

Both cars are now complete. Here are some final build details. The grills on both cars are Model Car Garage p/e units. The grills are painted, on the coupe in body color, and on the roadster in same light buff white color of the wheels. The grill trim was left in bare stainless steel with the crank hole trim detail added. I went with the small sealed beam headlights to avoid the resto-rod look. Based on what I had to remove from the windshield trim the resin coupe body has a 3 ½ scale inch .chop. The roadster windshield received a 2 scale inch chop. The completed cars and the beauty-shots can be found here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56289 Thanx .for lookin’ B.

(more photos below) I’ve built quite a few Revell ’32 Fords, .roadsters, coupes, sedans in all varieties from ratty to shiny show cars, competition cars to streets machines, but for some reason, with one exception, they’ve all been fenderless. In an effort to rebalance things a bit I decided to build two Deuces at once, a roadster and a chopped 3-window coupe, both of them based pretty closely on the basic kit (with the obvious change of adding fenders to the highboy-only roadster). My plan was to come up with two very different cars by changing key details. The coupe is a shiny 60’s style street and show rod. The roadster is a late 50’s style roadster with a more worn look and blackwall tires, influenced by the Jim Shelton and Gray Baskerville Deuce roadsters. Here are the results. Thanx for lookin’, B. Common Details Shared By Both Builds: Kit-stock chassis with shaved front spring to lower the front suspension. Kit-stock fenders, small sealed-beam headlights, body trim pieces, hoods and grill shells. Model Car Garage photo-etch grills painted body color on the coupe and matched to the wheel color on the roadster. AMT Firestone Supreme front tires and Goodyear GT Radial rear tires. Kit-stock-transmission and drive line. Morgan Auto Detail coils and pre-wired distributors. Roadster Details: Revell Parts Pack Small Block Chevy with AMT Chevrolet script valve covers. Kit-stock-body shell with modified kit interior: Seat raised ¼” top position seat bolster above rear deck; kit dashboard has a/c vents and cassette player removed and gauges moved left in front of driver. Windshield chopped 2 scale inches. Revell ’32 Ford 5-window kit steelies with Revell trim rings and AMT Ford Deluxe hubcaps. Testors Mythical Maroon lacquer paint over Duplicolor Red Oxide primer with Krylon semi-gloss clear coat. Coupe Details: Resin 3-window body shell with 3 1/2 scale inch chop courtesy of e-Bay seller “gregory23c”. “Hemi”: engine, interior, taillights, stock hood sides and Torq-Thrust wheels from a Revell ’32 Ford 5-window kit. Carburetors replaced with two 4 barrels from the small block Fords found in all Revell Deuce kits. Air cleaners are from my parts box. Vinyl whitewall transfers courtesy of “Dirk”. Paint is Tamiya PS-19 Camel Yellow over Duplicolor white primer with Testors Wet-Look clear.

Glad 2 C U Rockin' on this one!!!!

Thanx again guys! On the home stretch. The back ends are done and I've just got the p/e grilles to install, headlights, door handles, filler caps, coolant lines, and the usual tweaks and touchups.... Shooting for Sunday Under Glass. Here's the back end of both:

Coolness!!! I've had one of these ('though not a replica build) on my to-do list ever since Ron at Early Years Resin first offered his belly tank parts two years ago. I have the original, larger, body. He since has corrected the oversized original to a proper 1/24-1/25 scale tank which it looks like you're using. Gotta get me one and get started on mine later this year.... Are most of those parts from Early Years (i.e. the louvers and the headrest, for example)?

This is a little project I’ve been working on for the last three weeks. While I’ve built quite a few Revell ’32 Fords for some reason I’ve only ever built one full fendered one. So I decided I’d build two at once, a chopped 3-window coupe and a roadster. The plan was to stay close to kit-stock, trying to keep them fairly similar in construction techniques, using a large box of spare parts from these kits I’ve amassed over the past few years, but still changing key elements so that they would land up being quite different in “flavor” when I was done. Both cars are based on a kit-stock Revell ’32 Ford chassis with the front spring shaved to bring the nose down. Both cars use kit wheels, the 3-window coupe using the Torq-Thrusts that can be found in all the Revell Deuce kits, and the roadster using the steelies from the 5-window kit, but with AMT ’40 Ford Deluxe hubcaps which are shallower than the Revell kit ‘caps. Both cars use the Goodyear GT Radials rear tires from the original Roadster kit, and both cars use AMT Firestone Deluxe Champion front tires. In the case of the .coupe I used Dirk’s very cool stick-on vinyl whitewalls which totally changes the look of the tires. The chopped 3-window coupe is a resin piece purchased on e-Bay from “gregory23c”. Flawless styrene-like white resin and very reasonably priced. Highly recommended. I used the interior from the 5-wndow coupe, along with the hemi engine from that kit, with lots of chrome and a bright Tamiya Camel Yellow (PS-19) paint job finished with Testors Wet Look clear for a 60’s car show vibe. The crummy little 4-barrels from the 5-window kit were replaced with two of the dozens of 4-barrels from the Revell Deuce small block Fords I've collected over the years. The air cleaners are of unknown origin from my parts box. The roadster is inspired by the Jim Shelton and Gray Baskerville roadsters, both classic full fendered cars. It will have a chopped windshield like the Shelton car and the Testors Mythical Maroon paint has been finished out with Krylon semi-gloss clear for a more worn look similar to the Baskerville Deuce. The motor is a Revell Parts Pack small block Chevy with stock Chevrolet script valve covers and ram horn exhausts from an AMT kit, and the transmission from the Deuce kit small block Fords to minimize any mods to the drive train. With the blackwall tires, steelies, semi-gloss paint and plain-Jane SBC I’m going after the funky late 50’s street rod look of the Gray Baskerville roadster to contrast with the shiny slickness of the coupe. In keeping with the roadster’s Old School vibe I modified the kit interior by raising the seat about ¼ inch in order to have the bolster on the seat back stand out above the rear deck as was so common on older roadsters. The dashboard is the kit piece but with the stock face with its cassette player and air conditioning outlets removed and the kit instrument cluster cut out and modified to fit over on the driver’s side of an otherwise plain panel. I’m close to finished, with maybe another week of bench time to get them both done. Here are some shots of the cars so far. Thanx for lookin’, B.

What is the time window on this? Traditional rods are pretty much all I build, but I'd like to earmark a project just for this CBP. I always have something on the bench that fits the rules... BTW the Rolling Bones 5-window is real sharp!

The fine work continues. Thanks for sharing this. The mild chop serves to "dial in" the proportions of the car. It should be quite handsome when it's done. The point about the side moldings is an important one. I've done 2 AMT '40 Fords in the last couple of years and the side trim BMF work was no fun at all! Your build will benefit nicely from the removal and reapplication of the molding. Also, it looks like you took your chop from above the trunk line at the rear, using a wedge cut. Am I correct on this? The result, while quite good looking, actually, is a more hump backed effect. In my planned upcoming Tudors I'm going to have a more radical chop so I'll have to think about your approach. Perhaps for a deeper chop it might be advisable to shorten the trunk lid, or even pivot the trunk panel and lower valance forward as well.

Nicely done so far. Super clean cuts and fabrication work. I'll be following this one as I have a couple of AMT Tudors in the lineup for 2012.

Sometimes a "super-detailed" build can be faulted for looking too "busy", where the parts don't scale properly and the whole effect makes one wonder why the builder bothered. BUT ... this is NOT the case here!!! Virtually every part that you have made helps to take this model to another realm of realism in both scale and texture. As John Teresi pointed out, this is an extraordinary gift you have, and you've applied it to an almost ideal subject to show us what can be achieved. Thanx for sharing.

Exceptionally nice work. And very well photographed, too!